BUENA - A week after seeing their playoff hopes likely dashed, the Buena Regional High School football team dug deep and mustered up the motivation to come out strong against Lower Cape May on Friday.

The Chiefs offense proved up to the task, leading the team to a 41-24 victory over the Caper Tigers at the John J. Zucal Athletic Complex.

Sophomore running back Byron Spellman rushed for two touchdowns and caught another, providing the perfect complement to junior Shawn Rice who rumbled for 133 yards and a pair of scores.

“The line kept blocking, everybody did their job and gave me the opportunity to score,” Spellman said.

Buena scored the first two touchdowns of the night to stake itself to an early lead, but the two sides exchanged scores from that point forward. A five-yard run by Rice in the fourth quarter ended Lower Cape May’s comeback upset hopes.

The Chiefs need a lot of help to sneak into the Group I South playoffs after last week’s loss to Absegami. The team viewed that game as a playoff game, and since the first eight contests are all that count toward a team’s playoff standings, Friday’s game was mostly for pride.

“Facing adversity is tough ... you have to come in and play,” Buena quarterback Luke Santiago said. “We wanted to get the win and we did.”

Players of the game: Luke Santiago — The sophomore quarterback rushed for a score and threw for another. His three rushes were for 19, 18 and 5 yards, with the 5-yarder going for a touchdown.

“When we practice hard, we play physical; we like to hit,” Santiago said.

Byron Spellman — The sophomore running back scored three times, including a 27-yard pass and catch from Santiago in the first quarter to kick start the offense. He added two rushing touchdowns and piled up 65 yards on 8 carries, good for an 8.1-yard average.

Keys to the game: Spreading the wealth — Three different Chiefs scored rushing touchdowns against the Caper Tigers. Two receivers caught passes of 27 or more yards. While Rice still led the way with 17 carries, other Buena players proved capable of moving the ball.

“Our offense is predicated on taking what defenses give us,” coach Jonathan Caputo said. “Shawn is our workhorse, but we have other guys that can carry the load. Being multifaceted is how you win football games in high school.”

Move the chains — Buena had 21 first downs in the game and 342 yards of total offense.

Limiting mistakes — Just one Buena offensive play all night went for a loss. Rice gained at least one yard on every carry. The Chiefs were flagged eight times and 55 yards, but they were able to keep the damage to a minimum. Two of those penalties were holding calls on Spellman touchdowns that came back, but Buena eventually got the ball into the end zone on at least one of those possessions.

Quote of the week:

“We felt like we lost our playoff chance last week and it’s been a tough week for everybody. Just trying to teach them you still have to bring a lunch pail every day. It’s a hard thing to learn, but it’s definitely important.” — Buena coach Jonathan Caputo.